Optimal Allocation of Maneuver Devices in Distribution Networks for Reliability Improvement

A flexible control of the distribution system is an efficient strategy to enhance the grid reliability and quality of service, in this sense, the maneuver devices play an important role to reach flexibility under network faults. In this direction, the present work proposes a new approach to solve the allocation problem of optimal maneuver devices in electric distribution systems (EDS) that considers both permanent and temporary faults. The considered maneuver devices are normally closed switches coupled to the beginning or to the end of distribution branches. The objective is to improve the system reliability with minimal investment cost. The metaheuristic and bio-inspired technique known as artificial immune system (AIS) is applied to handle the discrete feature of the switch allocation problem. The index considered to evaluate the reliability is the system expected outage cost to customers due to supply outages (ECOST). The paper includes a case study with four different simulations using the well-know RBTS Bus 4 test system The obtained results were compared to the literature ones and proved that the proposed approach can lead to promising solutions that establish a suitable trade-off between the reliability and the utility costs.